Boston Bruins must take advantage of Mitch Marner’s absence

The Boston Bruins will face Atlantic Division rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs this Friday and they have to take advantage of an injured Mitch Marner.

A few days ago, you’d have said the Boston Bruins would easily take advantage of an injury to one of the key wingers in the Leafs line-up. However, the way we’ve played lately, there’s no guarantee that we can beat a Mitch Marner-less Maple Leafs.

In 2 games this season against Boston, Mitch Marner has 2 assists (including one on an over-time winner in October). In last season’s play-offs he had 4 points in 7 games, to go with a regular season total of 5 points in 4 games.

Add the year previous to that, where he notched 9 points in 7 play-off games despite not having John Tavares as his center and also a further 9 points in 4 regular-season contests and it’s safe to say that Mitch Marner seems to thrive on playing the Boston Bruins.

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The sheer fact that we get to face the Toronto Maple Leafs when Mitch Marner is out injured is an absolute bonus for us. We’re talking a player that has, all up, 33 points in his 28 career games against the Boston Bruins.

Your Boston Bruins will be facing the Toronto Maple Leafs with players that also thrive upon them as opponents, but there is no bigger gift than not having to face Marner, especially in light of four consecutive losses after a near-perfect start to the latest campaign.

With Mitch Marner missing from the line-up, it makes for a slightly easier match-up game – John Tavares still needs to be kept out of the game, but the top line can really hone in on Auston Matthews and William Nylander rather than having to worry about the double-punch of Matthews and Nylander followed by Tavares and Marner.

The sight of Kasperi Kapanen or Zach Hyman streaking up the wing with Tavares doesn’t exactly plant any seeds of fear. Well, not compared to their injured counterpart.

Taking points from fellow Atlantic Division teams is going to be key by the end of this campaign, as it’s highly unlikely we’ve seen the last of the Tampa Bay Lightning (despite their present lowly standing) and the Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers certainly look like they can shake things up, along with Toronto too, of course.

This upcoming game with Toronto really is one where we need to stamp our mark on them; no blowing four goal leads in the third period and ensure we take two points away to continue to maintain top spot in the Atlantic.